US envoy arrives after Pakistan bomb plot foiled

Less than a day after police foiled a plot to kill American diplomats in Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca arrived in the capital to discuss the war on terror.

Attackers had planned to crash a vehicle packed with ammonium nitrate into a car carrying the US envoys in the southern city of Karachi, police said. Three men were arrested and were due in court today.

Authorities in the restive port city said one of the suspects had directed them to a warehouse piled high with 250 sacks of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser which can be used to make bombs.

“Two American diplomats who travel daily in a bullet-proof car on Shahr-e-Faisal Avenue were the target, and the most possible point of attack was near a particular restaurant on that street,” said Karachi Police Superintendent Farooq Awan.

Normally US diplomats in Pakistan are warned to vary their routes to work and watch closely for anything suspicious. There was no immediate comment from the US embassy about the alleged plot.

Awan said his officers were hunting for the warehouse’s owner.

“We want to know whether he was involved or whether this was just a business deal,” he said.

Militants have targeted foreigners in Pakistan since the country gave its support to the US-led war on terror.

Until the September 11 attacks, Pakistan had been a staunch supporter of the Taliban – but it reversed its course after Afghanistan’s rulers refused to surrender Osama bin Laden and his operatives.

The change of policy enraged Muslim militants across Pakistan. Attacks on foreigners have killed several people and prompted Western embassies to evacuate staff and their families.

US intelligence believes senior al-Qaida agents may be hiding in Pakistan - either in the remote tribal regions or in the congested cities, possibly southern Karachi.

Rocca’s visit to Pakistan is the first since October elections gave a boost to militant religious parties. They now control two key provinces bordering Afghanistan.

Since coming to power the parties have released dozens of Islamic militants.

A key militant, Azhar Mahmood, head of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, was freed over the weekend after being under house arrest for nearly a year. Another key militant, Azim Tariq of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was elected to the national Parliament.

These developments are likely to be high on Rocca’s agenda, as well as a promise by the religious parties to deny permission for US forces to carry out operations on their territory.

Security surrounding Americans and US interests in Pakistan is already at a peak, say US officials in Pakistan.

The US Consulate in Karachi was attacked by a suicide bomber last June, killing 12 Pakistanis. In March a grenade attack on a Protestant church in Islamabad killed five people, including a US embassy employee and her 17-year-old daughter.